Synopses & Reviews
In 1920, young Olga Chekhova, the beautiful niece of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, fled Moscow for Berlintaking only a smuggled diamond ring. Olga quickly won both celebrity as an actress and prominence in the ranks of Germanys Nazi party, eventually becoming Hitlers favorite actress. But was she really a sleeper agent recruited by her brother, Lev Knipper, to spy for the Russian NKVD?
Antony Beevors The Mystery of Olga Chekhova tells the extraordinary tale of how one family survived the Russian revolution, the civil war, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist terror, and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. In putting together this amazing story, Antony Beevor demonstrates how people survived under the terrible pressures of a totalitarian age. He reveals a confusion of courage, idealism, fear, self- sacrifice, opportunism, and betrayal. The most astonishing part of this truly epic tale is that both Olga and Lev would live through this most murderous era in modern history.
Synopsis
- Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper's Paris After the Liberation: 1944-1949 will be published simultaneously by Penguin
- The Fall of Berlin 1945 was a New York Times and Washington Post bestseller
- Visit www.antonybeevor.com
Synopsis
In his latest work, Antony Beevorandmdash;bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945 and one of our most respected historians of World War IIandmdash;brings us the true, little-known story of a family torn apart by revolution and war. Olga Chekhova, a stunning Russian beauty, was the niece of playwright Anton Chekhov and a famous Nazi-era film actress who was closely associated with Hitler. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev to become a Soviet spyandmdash;a career she spent her entire postwar life denying. The riveting story of how Olga and her family survived the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Second World War becomes, in Beevorandrsquo;s hands, a breathtaking tale of survival in a merciless age.
Synopsis
In his latest work, Antony Beevorandmdash;bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945 and one of our most respected historians of World War IIandmdash;brings us the true, little-known story of a family torn apart by revolution and war. Olga Chekhova, a stunning Russian beauty, was the niece of playwright Anton Chekhov and a famous Nazi-era film actress who was closely associated with Hitler. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev to become a Soviet spyandmdash;a career she spent her entire postwar life denying. The riveting story of how Olga and her family survived the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Second World War becomes, in Beevorandrsquo;s hands, a breathtaking tale of survival in a merciless age.
About the Author
Antony Beevor is the author of a number of histories, including The Spanish Civil War, The Fall of Berlin 1945, and Stalingrad, which has been published in twenty-three languages and was awarded the first Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction, the Wolfson History Prize, and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Map
Dramatis Personae
1. The Cherry Orchard of Victory
2. Knippers and Chekhovs
3. Mikhail Chekhov
4. Misha and Olga
5. The Beginning of a Revolution
6. The End of a Marriage
7. Frost and Famine
8. Surviving the Civil War
9. The Dangers of Exile
10. The Far-Flung Family
11. The Early 1920s in Moscow and Berlin
12. Home Thoughts from Abroad
13. The End of Political Innocence
14. The Totalitarian Years
15. The Great Terror
16. Enemy Aliens
17. Moscow 1941
18. A Family Divided by War
19. Berlin and Moscow 1945
20. Return to Berlin
21. After the War
Olga Chekhov's Films
References
Source Notes
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index